YMCA Youngsters Warm to Hockey

With an assist from a professional hockey team, students enrolled in the Verdugo YMCA’s after-school program were all kings for a day Tuesday.

Wielding curved wooden sticks rather than jewel-encrusted staffs, about two dozen boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 11 participated in a free clinic sponsored by the Los Angeles Kings.

The students didn’t seem to mind that none of the Kings players was there.

They listened intently as Martin Mullen, a former college ice hockey and professional roller hockey player, laid out the rules of the game and instructed them to, above all, have fun.

“Time out. Time out. I have another rule,” Mullen said, gathering the kids into the center of a makeshift rink in the parking lot of Foothill Christian Church.

“We’re all a team here, right? OK, then, whoever scores a goal, I want all his teammates to come over and give him a high-five.”

Tuesday’s lesson was the third in a series of four clinics at Verdugo. The clinics are part of a Kings-led community outreach program to provide free hockey instruction at Southern California schools, boys and girls clubs and YMCAs.

“It’s been great. A lot of the kids are playing who wouldn’t usually be out there taking part in sports,” said Joyce Rapose, site director of the YMCA program.

David Phillips, 10, demonstrated a mastery of hockey lingo, if not the actual sport.

“Football is my favorite but I like hockey too,” he said. “In football, you get to tackle and in hockey you get to check.”

Added 9-year-old Robin Snedden:

“I never played hockey before. I like it a lot even though I’m a rookie.”